Kenzaburo Oe - Somersault

After the two of them left, the remaining members were given a detailed briefing on the local area by Asa-san, wife of the retired former principal of the local junior high school, and by the humorously eloquent head priest of the Fushoku temple, Mr. Matsuo; Asa-san was taking care of the buildings the church would use, and she and Dancer had been in close contact regarding preparations for the move. Ogi was impressed by how objective these two local representatives were regarding short-term issues involved in the church's move. What's more, the two of them seemed to be rivals in the considerable influence they had over those who held the political strings here. Ogi was particularly impressed by their discussion of the background of the area and its recent local history.

The town here was called Maki Township, in Kita County of Ehime Prefecture. The region was on the northern slope of the central mountain range running through Shikoku, just about in the middle; soon after the town- ship was incorporated, in an area called the Old Town, a church called the Church of the Flaming Green Tree rose up and, after a short time, disap- peared. Fifteen years before, the leader of the church, named Brother Gii, had been murdered. His church had built the chapel that stood on the eastern edge of the south bank of the man-made lake in the Hollow, the chapel that was so well known as an example of modern architecture. On the land to the west, the church members had set up a site for tents where many of them used to stay.

With Gii's death the church itself, to use a popular term borrowed from the terminology of political demonstrations, just melted away. The church members dispersed like so many drops of water soaking into the ground.

Actually, the final sermon to commemorate the breakup of the church had been given by Mr. Matsuo, then a church activist who had since returned to his role as local Buddhist priest.

"Brother Gii was a very simple man," Mr. Matsuo said, "yet one of the most ethical people you'd ever want to meet. He always considered others' lives more important than his own, and put that belief into practice. His in- fluence is still felt among us here. The Church of the Flaming Green Tree is no longer with us, but Gii's life and death are etched in our memories, not just those of us who were close to him but other people as well. We would like to keep the area around the Hollow as sacred ground, which is why when you asked to take over the chapel for your own church, we leapt at the idea.

We thought, Why don't we help them make it happen?"

According to reports that Ogi had gathered, the transfer of ownership of the chapel, and the subsequent construction of the monastery, came about in the following way. Brother Gii had inherited the Hollow and surround- ing land from one of the established families in the old village. Along with this, one follower, the head of another old family in the area, decided to con- struct the chapel and contributed the needed funds. When the Church of the Flaming Green Tree was incorporated and tax issues became moot, this par- ticular church member donated the land and the chapel to the church.

Along the south side of the Hollow, a road sixteen feet wide had been built running the entire length of the man-made lake from east to west. This road was lined with cobblestones, modeled on the cobblestone paths that, according to the rich folklore of the region, used to be constructed high in the forest, remnants of which could still be found here and there. On the east- ern edge of this road was the cylindrical chapel, constructed in the latest con- crete technology, a building that at the time of its construction was a hot topic of conversation in architectural circles. After the chapel was built, Mr. Soda's construction company came up with a plan to construct a courtyard out of the road leading up to the chapel, with communal residences running along both sides. But it was at this point that the church broke up.

Many local residents didn't want the buildings to remain unoccupied, and they wanted to complete the ones that had been planned, as well. After accepting the donation of the chapel and the land along the south shore of the lake, the town decided to build a junior high school and a continuing education center there, and there was strong support for this idea. The plans fell through, though, because of the economic timing-the Bubble Economy of Japan had just burst and money was tight. In opposition to those in the Old Town who still wanted to go ahead with the original plan, a rival movement arose calling not just for a cancellation of the continuing education center but the junior high as well-there weren't enough children in the area to justify it, they claimed. In fact, one candidate for town head had run on this plat- form and won election, so the whole plan was back to square one.

This still meant they had to deal with the investment already made in the construction plans. With exquisite timing, just when the town authori- ties were racking their brains as to what the next step should be, the Kansai headquarters of the church began to show an interest in the land. Mr. Soda, the headquarters' leader as well as the one who'd been involved in the origi- nal construction, played a major role in the negotiations. Things didn't al- ways go smoothly, but with the church now taking on the loans from the town, they were able to complete the original second phase of construction pretty much as it had been originally envisioned.

The chapel and the monastery had been kept up-not exactly in a hands- on way but regularly nonetheless-and like some recent ruins were beauti- ful and abandoned, and no discord arose between the local residents and church members from the Kansai headquarters during their intermittent visits. However, with a good number of people expected to move to the town as Patron restarted his religious movement, there were sure to be difficulties ahead. What's more, this was taking place soon after all the uproar involving the Aum Shinrikyo satyan that had been widely reported in the media.

Ogi and Dancer flew from Haneda to Matsuyama airport. When they arrived at the Maki Town JR Station and went into the business district in the Old Town to rent a car, they came across some protest banners and leaflets: DON'T LET OUR TOWN BE TAKEN OVER BY FANATICS! WILL OUR CHILDREN SEE MURDERS ON THE STREETS AGAIN? AND OPPOSE ARRIVAL OF PATRON'S CHURCH!

The banners and leaflets were the work of a group called the Associa- tion to Oppose the Move of Religious Organizations to Maki Town, made up largely of residents of the Old Town. A month before they had put up their banners at the entrance of the Ohashi Bridge over the Kame River, which ran through the center of town, and plastered all the shop windows with their leaflets. Thanks to Asa-san's tenaciousness, these had all been removed a week earlier.

In trying to persuade people to accept the new church coming to town, Asa-san used the following argument. Fifteen years ago, during the brief period when the Church of the Flaming Green Tree flourished, their farm products had sold quite well in Matsuyama, and the farmers in the area had turned a nice profit. The church members' spending alone had been a shot in the arm to the local economy. After the demise of the church, the valley's economy had gone into a tailspin unconnected with the bursting of the Bubble Economy. If it was good for the economy why were people opposing another church?

Already the church had used its resources to pay off loans the town had taken for the junior high school project. And they'd hired people locally to build the monastery. Isn't it natural, now that they own the chapel and the monastery, for church people to move in? With all the benefits you've had so far, how can you possibly join a movement opposing their arrival?